Body size and build influence performance in many sports, especially in those belonging to the group of female aesthetic sports (rhythmic gymnastics, artistic gymnastics, and figure skating). These sports pose high specific demands upon the functional, energy, motor and psychological capacities of athletes, but also upon the size, body build and composition of the performers, particularly of the top-level female athletes. The study of the top athletes (rhythmic gymnasts, in this case) may provide valuable information on the morphological requirements for achieving success in this sport. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to analyze the somatotype of 40 Serbian top-level rhythmic gymnasts, aged 13.04±2.79, and to form the five age group categories. The anthropometric variables included body height, body mass, the selected diameters, girths and skinfolds, and the Heath-Carter anthropometric somatotype. All of the anthropometric data were collected according to International Biological Programme, and then processed in the Somatotype 1.2. The applied analysis of variance indicated an increase in endomorphic component with age. The obtained results show that the balanced ectomorph is a dominant somatotype, being similar for all of the athletes that took part in the research (3.54-3.24-4.5). These results are in line with the ones obtained in previous studies.

No abstract

No abstract

The aim of the research was to determine the correlation of morphological characteristics and fitness parameters of overweight and obese boys aged seven. The sample of participants consisted of 198 pupils (boys) aged seven years, from elementary schools from the territory of the city of Niš, Paraćin, Bela Palanka, Leskovac and others, classified as a category with increased body mass or obesity. Morphological characteristics were determined by measuring parameters of longitudinal (3), transversal, (3) circular dimensions (3) and body mass and measurement of subcutaneous fat tissue (3). For the assessment of muscular fitness, body composition and cardiorespiratory fitness, the following tests were used: the plyometric leap, precancer-turn-off, percentage of body fat and Body Mass Index (BMI); a shuttle run test based on the calculated VO2max (L) and VO2max (ml/kg/min) values. A canonical correlation analysis was used to determine the correlation between morphological characteristics and fitness parameters. The level of statistical significance was set at .05. The results of the study showed that there is a statistically significant association (p˂.01) between morphological characteristics and fitness parameters in overweight and obese boys aged seven. Participants who have higher values of voluminosity and body width have higher values of fat percentage in the body as well as BMI. Smaller explosive power was found in participants with higher values of skin folds. It has been determined that body mass and voluminosity positively affects the strength of the arm and shoulders, that is, they adversely affect the VO2max values.

No abstract